The Beautiful People

Written by Marilyn Manson and Twiggy Ramirez and produced by Trent Reznor, this single from Antichrist Superstar (1996) made Manson the central target of conservative America's culture war against rock music. South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia passed legislation banning the band from performing at state-operated venues. In 1997, Senator Joe Lieberman cited Manson's music in Senate hearings on music and youth. The video's grotesque, industrial imagery with fascist aesthetic overtones was too extreme for mainstream television rotation, yet the song still reached number 26 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.